Kristina Kuzmic has more than a million followers on Facebook. Photo / Facebook
Kristina Kuzmic has more than a million followers on Facebook. Photo / Facebook
By Lisa Mayoh
She remembers having nothing. Divorced, depressed, sleeping on the floor of a room she shared with her kids and feeding her toddlers on food stamps. She hit rock bottom - and has been a rising star ever since.
US social media sensation Kristina Kuzmic makes fun of herself - and tantrumming toddlers and testing teenagers - with her hilariously relatable viral videos that have been watched more than 400 million times, winning the hearts of parents everywhere.
One of her recent posts - toilet trauma - on how no one can ever manage to replace the finished toilet roll, even if it's RIGHT THERE - had more than 33 million views in just 10 days.
"I think the reason they relate to me is because I'm pretty blunt and don't paint my life or motherhood as perfect," Ms Kuzmic told news.com.au.
"We all just want to feel normal and to know that we're not the only ones struggling.
"I think my videos have helped parents feel less alone."
By being truthful, Ms Kuzmic has created a community for parents to come together, support each other and destroy the 'boring' illusion of perfection with her 'truth bombs'.
The messy bedroom. The burnt dinner. Going to a meeting wearing the same stained shirt you wore yesterday - and slept in. Locking yourself in the bathroom for a fake shower, just to escape the madness. She has exposed normality, making parenthood fun again - and she's travelling the world giving talks, making sure Mums and Dads know they're not alone.
"Be kinder to yourself!" she told news.com.au. "We put too much pressure on ourselves to get a ridiculous amount of stuff accomplished each day, to be the perfect parent who never makes mistakes, to be able to give our kids everything - and too much.
If Aduts acted like toddlers!
Parents of young children, next time someone asks you why you're constantly exhausted, show them this!
To order my book: http://kristinakuzmic.com/hold-on-but-dont-hold-still/
"We're constantly filled with guilt, we're exhausted, we're overwhelmed.
"So the most important thing is just to realise that we're human and flawed, and to not place unrealistic expectations on ourselves.
"Also, we need to take time out for ourselves, whether it be 10 minutes or a few hours.
"Get help from others. Asking for help doesn't mean you're inadequate - it means you're smart enough to know that we all need help in order to be our best."
The 38-year-old mother of three happily labels herself as flawed - and flaunts it. She's tired. She's frustrated. She's real. And, just like parents who love her, she's doing her best.
And perfection? Well it doesn't exist anyway.
"Perfection is boring," Ms Kuzmic insists.
"The mess, the chin hair, the old shirts and the burnt dinner is more interesting.
"Nothing is perfect - except maybe a good glass of wine poured over some brownies.
"I love hiding in my bathroom with the shower on - but not actually taking a shower.
"You can pretend the shower is like a waterfall and you're somewhere exotic and have a few minutes where no one needs their mouth wiped, their hands wiped or butt wiped - that's the goal in life, people."
She candidly shares a story about after her divorce, being so broke she wasn't sure if she would become homeless with her two young children. She was depressed, and didn't know what to do - finally finding strength in giving back to others.
"One night I couldn't sleep - I was crying - and thought even when I feel like a complete loser, is there something little, something tiny, that I am still good at? That I am still confident in? And that was that I know how to cook a great meal on very little money," she said.
So she sent an email to friends, inviting anyone who was lonely, financially struggling or in need of support, to her place dinner once a week, using her family's food stamps to buy supplies.
"6pm rolled around and slowly people started coming in, complete strangers started walking in to my apartment and letting me feed them," she said.
"And by the end of the night, I'd fed a ton of people, in my tiny little apartment, with my tiny little budget and my tiny little kids.
"I will never forget closing the door after that last person had left and just sobbing.
"But for the first time in a long time I wasn't sobbing tears of misery and desperation, I was crying tears of a broken little girl who had just experienced her first glimmer of hope and healing.
"And yes life was still hard and I was still sad and there were still struggles, but I no longer felt defeated."
Then in 2011, Ms Kuzmic was chosen from 20,000 applicants and crowned the winner of Mark Burnett's reality TV competition Oprah's Search for the Next TV Star. Her first reality show The Ambush Cook aired on the Oprah Winfrey Network, and she is in the process of writing a book - between travelling for speaking engagements and raising her there children, aged 3, 12 and 14.
"I knew I was resonating with people when I started getting endless emails and messages from parents, opening up to me, sharing their own struggles," she said.
"They felt like I understood.
"I do. And I'm rooting for each and every one of them.
Photo / Facebook
"I never expected this to turn into what it has. My kids definitely inspire most of my videos - my ideas come from my everyday life parenting my kids, so they play a big part in everything I create.
"They're proud of the fact that I've been able to create this career on my own, doing what I love.
